EUROPEAN FANS VERSUS AMERICAN FANS. My approach to politics and journalism is heavily influenced by being a sports fan. My approach to reading blogs is shaped by the sports blogs and message boards that I read. The fierce partisanship on blogs of Republicans and Democrats is for me something like the fierce partisanship of Yankee fans and Red Sox fans (or that of the Blue chariot fanciers and the Green chariot fans two thousand years ago). I see the same kind of partisanship in some European attitudes toward the United States. The belief that the European disdain for American culture sprang up with George Bush is wishful thinking by Americans. (I remember years ago saying that I hoped that Bill Bradley ran against Jack Kemp for President so that European elitists could struggle with seeing a basketball player run against a football player). THE INNOCENTS ABROAD reflects the American attitude of over a century ago. This article has some details about European feelings (the article comes from the Arts and Letters Daily blog). I was especially amused by the lamentation that American sports fans don’t share the violent passions of European soccer fans and the claims that American universities are not good.
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I still haven’t read Toqueville’s book on America, and I really think it’s a major document. The only other big one I feel guilty about not having read is Coleridge’s Biographia Literaria. Anyway, I think European hatred of the U.S., in all its patronizing glory, is merely a continuation of its sense of outrage. How dare we start over, on different premises? How dare we have done so well? How dare we pick and choose how much of our cultural heritage we wish to retain? American Reinvention (see: Books/Libraries)–that’s the outrage we’ve committed.